UK ban on hunts with dogs ‘violates human rights’, House of Lords told

“There are many for whom hunting is a core part of their lives and the rural communities in which they live,” Richard Gordon, the Queen’s Counsel, was quoted as saying by The Telegraph at the start of the latest legal challenge to the 2004 Hunting Act.

“The social network of many individuals is made up entirely of those who hunt. The ban jeopardises their social life, working life and family life.”

Between 6,000 and 8,000 were expected eventually to lose their jobs, and many would also lose the homes that went with the jobs.

Others would lose businesses and the commercial “goodwill” attached to them. The impact on the economy of many rural communities would be “devastating”.

Gordon contended that the ban, introduced to prevent unnecessary suffering to animals, was nevertheless a “disproportionate” interference with the rights of individuals under the European Convention on Human Rights.

Campaigners are asking the judges to overrule a Court of Appeal judgment which dismissed their second challenge to the Hunting Act, in which they invoked human rights laws and European trade laws. The Countryside Alliance says the Act should be declared unlawful.